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Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a stop at SUNY Cobleskill earlier Tuesday, visiting with members of the Schoharie County NY Rising Committee — one of several the governor set up around the state to compete for and then spend grants aimed at rebuilding places that were hit by Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and Superstorm Sandy.

Cuomo laid out his NY Rising Concept, in which communities are supposed to not only rebuild but also use some of their grant money to protect and harden their infrastructures against potential storms, floods and other natural disasters that may loom in the future. Much of what he said was similar to the presentation he made earlier this year in Albany where he laid out the flood recovery plan, including his belief that floods and destructive storms like Irene, Lee and Sandy — all of which happened since he took office — are a kind of new normal.

“How do we learn from this?” asked Cuomo who was joined by members of the local panel he appointed to devise a recovery plan for the Schoharie Valley. “How do we do preventive measures and resiliency measures?”

He added, “If this happens again, and I’m sorry to say I believe it’s going to happen again…We should be planning for the worst.”

The Schoharie Valley is eligible for up to $12 million in grants to help rebuild and improve the area, although a lot of reconstruction has already taken place since Irene flooded the region’s low-lying communities in 2011.

Sarah Goodrich, who directs the Schoharie Area Long term Recovery, or SALT organization, said that 70 percent of the region’s homes, businesses and other buildings have been re-built.

Some of the remaining 30 percent pose challenges such as getting financing and insurance settlements with some property owners.
And some had simply been washed away in the flooding.

While Cuomo urged members of the community to keep their chins up, some longtime residents who have property in flood plains are facing tough decisions about whether to rebuild or try and get a government funded buyout — and if they do, whether they should stay in this rural area or move somewhere else.

“It may be a one-way ticket (out of the area or even the state) for many people,” said GOP Assemblyman Peter Lopez, who represents much of the region and who attended Tuesday’s meeting.

Aware of that challenge, Goodrich said they are working hard to put together financing or other means to help people remain in the area if that’s what they want to do.

While Cuomo didn’t have a lot of new news to offer the folks in Cobleskill on Tuesday, Goodrich said it was always encouraging to see the governor.

“It represents hope in the sense that the governor hasn’t forgotten us,” she said.

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